The term skycap for workers who help with luggage at an airport was coined by analogy with redcap, a term for porters on trains who wore red caps. Skycap was the winning entry in a contest. Another contest, held in 1923, gave us the word scofflaw, a term for someone who drinks illegally during Prohibition. A Boston philanthropist and staunch anti-alcohol crusader named Delcevare King sponsored the contest run by a local newspaper. Other entries included boozshevik, klinker, wetocrat, slacklaw, and lawjacker. Not to be outdone, a Harvard student magazine ran its own contest, offering $25 for the best slang term “Prohibitionist”: Also-rans included fear-beer and jug buster, but the winner was spigot-bigot. King is buried in Quincy, Massachusetts, where his epitaph reads simply, “He tried to be helpful.” This is part of a complete episode.
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...
Subscribe to the fantastic A Way with Words newsletter!
Martha and Grant send occasional messages with language headlines, event announcements, linguistic tidbits, and episode reminders. It’s a great way to stay in touch with what’s happening with the show.
